Monday, December 20, 2010

End of 2010!!!

Friends,

Well, we have come to the end of yet another year. When people ask how many years we have been here in Namibia...The answer surprises me. I find my self saying.. "well, Julia has been here for 23 years and I have been here for almost 5 years". Five years has gone by like a day. We are so thankful to the Lord for all his provision and unfailing grace!!

This year has been a great year looking back. We have grown in our understanding of God's Word and our relationship with the church. As I have said in some earlier posts...This year has been a year of getting to know the people of Monte Christo BC. It has been a joy! We are now just looking to next year to see what the Lord will do with our small vision. Our continued aim is to Glorify God in everything we do. He has called us....He has kept us...and He has led us....as for us...we just want to serve Him. Please continue to pray for the vision for next year and for willingness and passion from the church to see this church grow and be more obedient to God.

I wanted to also just take a moment and thank all of those that gave to us above and beyond these past few months. We were reminded that the Lord knows our needs even before we ask. It seemed that we were living pretty much week to week, and that as each week came, God provided for the next week through people. We are so thankful for our supporters. You guys are our partners in this mission. And we praise and Glorify God for bringing you all into our lives and giving you a desire to support us. May God continue to bless you all and keep you. Thank you!!!!!

This is our last post for the year. Tomorrow we will be traveling to the village in the North. Because there is no electricity there, we will not have access to the internet except through our phones. So we will be able to get emails, but may not be able to respond until we come back. Please pray for us as we travel. Pray that we do not have any issues either with police stops or break downs. We will of coarse take plenty of pictures and will try to post many of them when we come back.

We will be spending most of our time with the family up there, but I will also have the opportunity to be preaching at a church there over the new years weekend. I will have the opportunity to preach 3 sermons. I have decided to preach three of the "bible studies" I did in I Corinthians. I will be peaching on the need to keep our priorities where they should be. Please pray for this opportunity.

Well, I will close just by saying that we hope you all will have a Christ centered Christmas and a great New year! Write again next year!

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Sunday Meal together..

Hi everyone...I just wanted to write briefly and give a update on how the church meal went. It really was a wonderful time of fellowship. We had alot of people come, and had a great time eating together. We are hoping to do meals like these next year every quarter. Here are a few pictures of the time together. Enjoy!

Lunch and followship time at the church 05/12/2010





Thursday, December 02, 2010

First update of December...

UPDATE:

It is a little crazy to think that it is already December. I guess I knew it was coming!! : ) This past week was a bit of a bitter sweet one. This past week we said goodbye to a dear friend...Nitu. He has been apart of Monte Christo for many years. Nitu served at the church helping with both leading the services and helping with the Junior youth(middle school to high school age). He was also very active in the young adult groups. Nitu decided to go back to his mother country of Angola. Although we are behind him in this decision it is still hard to see such a servant leave the church.

We are also gearing up right now for our church luncheon this sunday. This will be a sort of Pot luck thing. So we will all bring something and have a meal together. This will be something that we hope to do together as a church every quarter next year.

I will also this week be giving our vision for the church next year. There are a few changes that we will be working on and adding some new ministries. Please pray for me as I present it to the church and as we prayerfully and humbly seek the Lord on how to put the vision in action.

We are getting into the holiday already. I think I have mentioned before that here in Namibia we have a country wide holiday where most businesses minus the essentials close for most of December. With this things slow down quit a bit with the church. For example, for the rest of the month we will not have any of our regular programmes such as family bible hour, sunday school, youth group, ect. We will then resume in January of next year.

Needs/praises!!:

I also wanted to just write to thank all of those that gave to us last month. We are so humbled by the way many of you stepped up to help us in this time. Thank You!!!! We praise the Lord for all of your continued support and prayers.

This month also has been a little struggling, but already with some that have given we have seen at least our rent and medical aid covered. We continue to pray for the rest. We are thankful for whatever you are willing to give. Again if you would like to donate to us here please email me at gtbutters@gmail.com and I will write you with ways you can give. Thanks again for your considerations.

We are also starting to think about a visit back to the states. We are at this point looking at maybe May or June of next year. We are looking at these dates because of my classes, and because I am needing to renew my domicile which may take some time. We are wanting to give it enough time. At this point we are asking that if anyone would be willing to donate frequent flyer miles to us then maybe we could use them for our flights. We are members of Star alliance milage plus. I think it will take 90,000 miles for each of us. We both have saved up only about 23,000 miles each. If you are interested please email me and I can give you our details. I know there is many more details needed to figure out for a return to the states, but the plane tickets are the first uncertainty. Thank you for your consideration!

Well I will post some pictures of our lunch this sunday. Thanks again!!